Search: 'Emlyn Hughes'

The internet has its critics, but after using it to spend his money on football games to make up for his deprived childhood, Harry Pearson  certainly isn’t one of them

My childhood contact with football board games was confined to gazing wistfully at the adverts in Jimmy Hill’s Football Weekly. They promised so much delight. Wembley was based on “The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition” and boasted “the most gripping features and exciting uncertainties” recreated “with vivid and amazing fidelity”. Soc­cerama, meanwhile was thrillingly endorsed by Eng­land World Cup star Alan Ball.

Read more…

Phil Kyte looks at the big issues affecting Rotherham

Has Ronnie Moore’s standing in the eyes of Rotherham fans been seriously affected by the saga of his non-move to Ipswich?
Not really. His eagerness to jump ship left a nasty taste, but most are realistic enough to know it’s more a case of when rather than if he leaves. But like a turbulent love affair, the love you share means you can forgive just about anything. Apart from joining Wednesday. We just hope that when he does go it’s to a big club. (And that rules out Wednesday.)

Read more…

Phil Ball remembers Grimsby Town's 1979-80 season

There’s pleasure in purgatory. Thus speaks the Grims­by Town supporter, a strange creature stuck out in the wilds of north-east Lincolnshire, miles from any­where, in a cut-off place with a cut-off mentality to boot. If you are handed the burden of following this club from an early age, you very soon learn that you are likely to spend the rest of your life having the piss taken out of you, a curious state of affairs which nevertheless hardens you and makes you all the more determined to face things out – to go into the world, as Val Doonican might have put it, walking straight and looking at your adversaries in the eye.

Read more…

Mike Ticher thumbs through some of the classics of ref literature and finds a world of egotists and backstabbers

One of the first referees to write his autobiography (assisted by Kenneth Wolstenholme) also had one of the best stories to tell. At 37, Arthur Ellis was the youngest Wembley Cup final referee when he oversaw Newcastle v Arsenal in 1952, ran the line in the final match of the 1950 World Cup in front of 200,000 at the Maracana and was in charge of the notorious “Battle of Berne” (Brazil v Hungary) in the 1954 World Cup.

Read more…

Lots of people have said nice things about David Coleman since the BBC put him out to grass. Harry Pearson isn't one of them

Trying to decide who is the best football commen­tator of all time is clearly a pointless exercise, on a par with arguing over who is the better looking, Kevin Phillips or Phil Stamp. Nevertheless, the news that the BBC will not be renewing David Coleman’s contract has provoked just such a debate and a recent convening of the Radio 5 sports panel, among others, unanimously declared the sep­tuagenarian gurgler from Stockport the greatest ever.

Read more…